Shakespeare and the Popularity of Poetry Books in Print, 1583-1622

Abstract

SHAKESPEARE AND THE POPULARITY OF POETRY BOOKS IN PRINT, 1583-1622 by lukas erne and tamsin badcoe Shakespeare's poems had very uneven success in the early modern book trade: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece became immediate bestsellers, whereas the Sonnets received not a single reprint in the 30 years following their original publication in 1609. We argue that an examination of the popularity of poetry books in the book trade is necessary to come to a better understanding of the status of Shakespeare's printed poems in their own time. What were the best-selling poetry books of the period, and how popular were they compared to Shakespeare's narrative poems? How unusual was it for a poetry book to be reprinted 15 times (like Venus and Adonis), or not to be reprinted at all? We also contextualize the question of popularity by focusing on genre, placing Shakespeare's Sonnets and Venus and Adonis amidst the publication history of their generically most closely related poetry books. Our article also has a second, broader ambition, which is to evaluate the popularity of late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century poetry books in relation to the book trade more generally. When they were first published, Shakespeare's poems had very uneven success in the book trade. Venus and Adonis, his first work to reach print, became an immediate bestseller, with 6 editions in the 1590s, 10 during his lifetime, and 16 by 1636. 1 Shakespeare's Sonnets, in contrast, received not a single reprint in the 30 years following their original publication in 1609. 2 These figures seem surprising given that Shakespeare's narrative poem has since become one of his lesser known works, whereas the Sonnets are now among the most famous poetry in the English language. His other poems were more popular than the Sonnets but less than Venus and Adonis: his second narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, first published in 1594,

“My Printer must, haue somwhat to his share”: Isabella Whitney, Richard Jones, and Crafting Books

“…Poetry books were attractive to publishers because they sold reasonably well, with "a sufficientif not greatnumber of customers", and there was always a "steady supply of new material". 11 During the ten year period when Jones was publishing Whitney's texts, from around 1566 to 1578, his main business was printing and publishing ballads and literary books, poetry, plays and prose romances. Ballads dominate his output in these years.…”

Speculation and Multiple Dedications in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

“…As Erne and Badcoe have shown, while poetry books comprised "a remarkable fraction" of the early modern book trade, "the interest in most of these poetry books was not great enough for them to reach a second edition," and only 19.7% reached a second edition within twenty years of their initial publication. 80 It does, however, seem clear that Lanyer did not earn the financial support she needed, since she had to open a school after her husband's death and the subsequent loss of the income from their hay and grain patent. She ran the small school for a time, and then lived with her son Henry, a successful Court musician, until her death in 1645.…”